Why I Love: The Combinations [Saga Frontier]

‘Why I Love’ is a series of lessons I’ve learned from my favorite game mechanics.

Number 9 is my favorite Final Fantasy in the series. In it, there are special abilities that the knight Steiner can use so long as the black mage Vivi is in the party. When Vivi learns a spell, a corresponding sword magic is unlocked on Steiner. It’s a combination attack where Vivi casts the spell on Steiner’s sword, and Steiner uses it to smack the enemy for more damage. Such an instance, where party members team up for more powerful attacks, take form as an entire system in Saga Frontier.

Activating a Lv. 5 Combination [Saga Frontier 1997]

The combination system in Saga Frontier is pretty free-form. There are no options in the menu to perform a combination attack like with Vivi and Steiner. It works by queuing up certain skills together, and the characters will automatically perform them in a combination. There are no hints or tells as to which skills can combine together, so learning the combinations requires the player to experiment in combat. Every skill a character learns becomes an opportunity to find new combos (you can find guides that have hundreds of combos listed). To really min-max each turn, you want to learn combos for doing AoE, for single target, and for healing. The system makes it easy for anyone to accidentally do a combo and feel awesome doing it.

Normally, skills are triggered one at a time with a rest between each of the character’s turns. In combos however, these skills are triggered one right after another without pause and often times before the previous skill has even finished. It can make for some on-screen craziness where it’s hard to understand what’s even happening, but it looks cool. Since combos utilize the same audiovisual assets as the skills that make them up, the tempo and composition together make the skills more fun and interesting without blowing the budget.

DSC, The Solo Combo [Saga Frontier 1997]

The way the combination system works, along with the skill system, makes the party feel free-flowing. Skills are tied to the weapon type, so multiple characters can end up sharing the same ones. When the player has learned which moves can combine together, they can start to interchange which character should do the combo with which other character based on the situation and what other skills each character has. It’s a constant puzzle to twist and turn and tweak until the player learns what tools best fit the situation at hand.

That process of feeling the party out is what I love most about the combat in Saga Frontier. Have this character learn these set of skills to better fit in with the group. Choose not to sacrifice another character’s natural abilities (which don’t combo very well) in order to diversify the tools of the party. Learn which characters are powerful, but only when they can act alone. The way the system makes you think about the game makes you really experience the dynamic of the group.

Lesson: Systems breed curiosity.

Curiosity is a heck of a thing. Even when we know what it’s doing, it keeps us clicking away on “Top Ten” lists. It pushes us to dig deeper. It thrills us and surprises us. But to really take advantage of it, the design needs to create an environment where curiosity is not only possible but where it can be bred. The best systems don’t generate infinite amounts of gameplay; the best systems generate curiosity that, in turn, generates more curiosity.